The brand was founded on April 1, 1991, as a general interest technology portal from Ziff Davis and evolved into an enterprise IT-focused online publication.

[3] The site also expanded overseas: initially to France, Germany and the United Kingdom; later to China, Australia, Hong Kong, Italy, Korea, Malaysia, Russia, Spain, Taiwan and India.

It also launched "Computer Stew", a web-based comedy show about technology that featured John Hargrave and Jay Stevens,[19] as well as the first ZDNet Holiday Gift Guide.

[22] Some analysts thought that the merger of CNET and ZDNET would lead to redundancy in their product offerings, but research revealed that their target audiences had just 25 percent overlap.

[28] A "Tech Update" section was created to serve as a directory of proprietary IT research (dubbed "IT Priorities"), and a new "Power Center" was implemented to prominently feature webcasts, white papers and case studies from partners.

Editorial features included writing by former Utah CIO Phil Windley, TechRepublic columnist Ramon Padilla and CNET News reporter Declan McCullagh.

[30] In 2006, ZDNET experienced another redesign that reduced its editorial focus on traditional news articles and product reviews and emphasized a growing network of expert bloggers, now totaling more than 30.

The blogs covered topics such as enterprise IT, open source, Web 2.0, Google, Apple and Microsoft, and featured journalists David Berlind, Mary Jo Foley and Larry Dignan.

In May 2010, ZDNet redesigned its site to place emphasis on the topics its blog network covers—now "Companies," "Hardware," "Software," "Mobile," "Security" and "Research"—and de-emphasize the downloads and reviews it imported from CNET post-merger.

[41] ZDNet operates a network of about 50 blogs loosely aligned by its major verticals: companies, hardware, software, mobile, security and IT research.

Within those general areas are blogs on gadgets, management strategy, social media, datacenters, technology law, SOA, healthcare, CRM, virtualization and sustainability.

[42] In 2007, the Association of Online Publishers awarded ZDNet UK under the Business Website category for its contribution to innovation in incorporating Web 2.0 and community features effectively on its site.

The ZDNet UK Live feature displays real time news updates and comments on the website and on social media including Twitter.